Quotes by Russell L. Ackoff

Russell L. Ackoff

A bureaucrat is one who has the power to say “no” but none to say “yes.”

Bureaucrats

A problem never exists in isolation; it is surrounded by other problems in space and time. The more of the context of a problem that a scientist can comprehend, the greater are his chances of finding a truly adequate solution.

Adequate

Risk

Space

Art inspires, produces an unwillingness to settle for what we have and a desire for something better. It is the product and producer of creative activity, change; it is essential for continuous development.

Art

Creative

Inspire

Common sense … has the very curious property of being more correct retrospectively than prospectively. It seems to me that one of the principal criteria to be applied to successful science is that its results are almost always obvious retrospectively; unfortunately, they seldom are prospectively. Common sense provides a kind of ultimate validation after science has completed its work; it seldom anticipates what science is going to discover.

Common Sense

Successful

Validation

Creativity is the ability to identify self-imposed constraints, remove them, and explore the consequences of their removal.

Chaos

Creativity

Self

Errors of omission, lost opportunities, are generally more critical than errors of commission. Organizations fail or decline more frequently because of what they did not do than because of what they did.

Business

Errors

Opportunity

Every problem interacts with other problems and is therefore part of a set of interrelated problems, a system of problems. I choose to call such a system a mess.

Mess

Problem

For me there has never been an amount of money that makes it worth doing something that is not fun.

Amount

Fun

In systems thinking, increases in understanding are believed to be obtainable by expanding the systems to be understood, not by reducing them to their elements. Understanding proceeds from the whole to its parts, not from the parts to the whole as knowledge does.

Doe

Thinking

Understanding

It is far better to do the right thing wrong than to do the wrong thing right.

Management

Risk

Wrong Things

Follow The Behaviour University in order to get the greatest quotes from the greatest people of all time so that you can tap into your own greatness.

Adequate

Amount

Analysis

Art

Assumption

Bureaucrats

Business

Chaos

Children

Common Sense

Contrast

Creative

Creativity

Data

Doe

Efficiency

Environment

Errors

Example

Facts

Fewer

Forecasts

Fun

Get Better

Go To Hell

Hell

Higher

Independent

Inspire

Integrity

Know How

Knows

Leadership

Management

Mess

Mistake

Needs

No Problem

Objectives

Opportunity

Ordinary

Past

People

Prejudice

Problem

Recreation

Resources

Risk

Satisfaction

School

The Future Blueprint

Tool

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

Tool

The Autobiography

Tool

The Behaviour Diary

Tool

The Dating Diary

Tool

The Relationship Therapist

Tool

Quotes by Russell L. Ackoff

Russell L. Ackoff

A bureaucrat is one who has the power to say “no” but none to say “yes.”

A problem never exists in isolation; it is surrounded by other problems in space and time. The more of the context of a problem that a scientist can comprehend, the greater are his chances of finding a truly adequate solution.

Art inspires, produces an unwillingness to settle for what we have and a desire for something better. It is the product and producer of creative activity, change; it is essential for continuous development.

Creativity is the ability to identify self-imposed constraints, remove them, and explore the consequences of their removal.

Errors of omission, lost opportunities, are generally more critical than errors of commission. Organizations fail or decline more frequently because of what they did not do than because of what they did.

Every problem interacts with other problems and is therefore part of a set of interrelated problems, a system of problems. I choose to call such a system a mess.

For me there has never been an amount of money that makes it worth doing something that is not fun.

In systems thinking, increases in understanding are believed to be obtainable by expanding the systems to be understood, not by reducing them to their elements. Understanding proceeds from the whole to its parts, not from the parts to the whole as knowledge does.

It is far better to do the right thing wrong than to do the wrong thing right.

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Topics by Russell L. Ackoff

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The Future Blueprint

The Home Therapist: Anti Anxiety

The Autobiography

The Behaviour Diary

The Dating Diary

The Relationship Therapist

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